Posts Tagged ‘impulse’

Deck 16’s Impulse is a deceptively simple game on paper. All it asks of you is to guide a little neon circle (a.k.a. “your craft”) from point A to point B and notice how gloriously fun those ancient, physics-based propulsion mechanics still are. Intriguingly it does consider itself a mash-up of Super Meat Boy and Lunar Lander too.

The fact that it starts off with fourteen levels worth of tutorials should of course be indication enough that Impulse is not as straightforward as one would expect. Simple to grasp, yes, that it definitely is and its controls are as intuitive as these things get, but even coming close to mastering the little devil requires efforts of herculean proportions.

Firebase’s side-scrolling shooter Orbitron: Revolution has turned up on the personal computer format, over here. It’s a fine-looking piece of retromancy, although I am have been playing it and am not fully convinced. While the pace of the Defender-meets-Uridium-on-a-ring sort of play is excellently paced and suitable explody, I found the visuals a bit tricky to read. Perhaps it’s down to the game being more slanted towards TV play than Jim’s-face-in-monitor play, but I found myself losing track of what was going on from time to time. That said, I am rubbish at retro-styled shooters, so perhaps the talents of those humans with brains attuned to side-scrolling will have a better time. Update: It’s also on Impulse.

This is curious. Valve’s games are now available to buy on rival digital distribution platform, Impulse. Oh 2012, you so crazy. Actually, this makes sense. Impulse was acquired last year by mega game retailer, GameStop. When all you care about is selling games to the most people, as a corporate entity like GameStop would, then you need to get the biggest games on your service. Valve’s games are on their shelves (remember those? Planky things for storing stuff), so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be downloadable, either.Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing kickstarts a grim Northern day quite like a bit of digital retail news. It’s the stuff that really gets my blood pumping and makes me realise how much I love this land called Interactive Entertaindom. You may remember that Impulse, the download service previously operated by Stardock, was purchased by Gamestop earlier this year. This led to some gnashing of teeth but the ski slopes of Hell remained out of commission.

Now, Sins of a Solar Empire has appeared on Steam, leading me to visibly flinch this morning as if reality had fallen out of joint. It hadn’t. Explanations below.

Last week’s news that US high street gaming market-choker Gamestop had acquired the Impulse download service from Stardock caused a whole lot of shock in these parts. Looks like PC gamers weren’t the only ones a little troubled by the news; Star Ruler dev Blind Mind Studios has pulled its sci-fi grand strategy game from the digital store in protest.Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve just spoken to Stardock’s boss regarding the story we just reported, that GameStop has purchased Stardock’s digital download service, Impulse. And no, it’s not an April Fool. The megacorp plans to integrate Impulse into their own website in the coming months, although Stardock say that at least for the foreseeable future Impulse will still be run by its current staff.

This is certain the case in the “near-term”, explains Stardock CEO Brad Wardell to us, who thinks that the purchase could be good for independent developers’ profiles. You can read his comments below.

Whoah! RPS reader Oak sends words that US game retailer GameStop has acquired both Impulse, Stardock’s independant digital distribution service, and Spawn Labs, a cloud gaming service, all with the aim of developing GameStop’s “growing suite of digital game products and services”. This press release on the subject says that Impulse’s digital download services will be fully integrated with GameStop “within the next few months”.

What does this mean for PC gaming? At the moment, all it means is that control of one of the biggest digital distribution services has been passed from a games developer that’s expressed an interest in the rights of gamers (you can read Stardock’s “Gamer’s Bill of Rights” here) to an enormous corporation that owns Game Informer, the single biggest video games magazine on the planet (with a circulation of 3.5 million copies each month, it reaches almost 100 times more people than any single UK games mag). We’ve contacted Stardock to find out more, though they’ve posted a simple FAQ about the acquisition here.

It really is. For the alterna-prices of $10/£6.21 you, a person who owns a computer, could get GalCiv II and its expansion packs – on Impulse, obviously. Why would you want to do such thing? Well, in short, it’s a brilliant strategy game that has few peers in the gaming world. It’ll indulge your galaxy-grabbing fantasies like no other. In long? Well, PCG’s Tom Francis has that covered, at length. Great length. Anyway, go get it, unless you already have it. Or you don’t like strategy games. You freak.

Last week I had a chat with Stardock boss Brad Wardell, and I’ve chopped the transcripts into two bits to be posted today and tomorrow. In this first part we talk about Impulse and Stardock’s attempts to rival GFWL and Steamworks with its Impulse Reactor tools. It’s an interesting response to living in the shadow of both Steam and Games For Windows Live, and it’ll be even more interesting to see how many developers and publishers now adopt them. Does all this promise, as one reader mailed in, “Steam, but better?”Read the rest of this entry »

Digital distribution’s a funny bugger – it’s growing ever harder to predict and apply patterns to it. One day, a new videogame from Steam et al is more expensive than its boxed-copy counter-part, then a few weeks later it can be selling for next-to-nothing. The Steam Christmas sale is almost unreal in both the amount and extent of its discounts, and it’s going to be having Valve’s competitors howling with despair. Honestly: some of these deals are yer-actual-genuine-proper-mental. Today only: Mirror’s Edge is £3.24, GTA IV is £5. In general over the seasonal shakedown: Braid is £1.74, Medieval II: Total War is £2.50, Ghostbusters is £5, Batman’s £20… And dozens and dozens more. Of course, there are sales on at the other major download services too..

As much as I dislike the beta-access for pre-order trend, this is one case in which I’m sorely tempted to just slap down the cash. Sins Of A Solar Empire’s second expandy update thing, Diplomacy, will open its beta (currently in progress) to anyone who pre-orders via Impulse. It requires the original game and Entrenchment to play, but I have been playing the crap out of Entrenchment over the past few weeks. Diplomacy pretty much adds everything I’ve been lusting for in the 4xRTS, which means diplomatic tech tree, diplomatic ships, and a host of other non-violence options for your Solar Empire. The problem of course, is that I haven’t really got time to be playing another reinvigorated RTS. Anyone else’s finger hovering over the button?

It seems the analysis of Stardock’s public report is far from over. Gamasutra report that Direct2Drive do not agree with the assessment that Impulse is second in the digital distribution market behind Steam. D2D’s splendidly-named VP of digital content, Sutton Trout, said the claim was “misinformation at best.” Stardock’s Brad Wardell responded: “The data we used came from the publishers. When you add in the fact that Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod, Galactic Civilizations, etc. are sold exclusively on Impulse, that is what allows Impulse to edge third parties.”

Hard to know who to believe until we see some sales figures, eh? Transparency could be a good policy, after all.

The Big K has news that the major digital download services are boycotting troubled enormo-shooter Modern Warfare 2 because of the inclusion of Valve’s Steamworks. Apparently Direct2Drive were first out with the news, saying they had “told publishers that they’d stop selling games bundled in such a manner until Valve “decoupled its retail marketplace” from Steam’s other services.”

GamersGate and Impulse will also be boycotting the title for the same reason. The implications of this aren’t clear. Does it play into Valve’s hands and given them an even larger grip on the market? Or is this the bell tolling for Steam’s retail service as a part of Valve’s gaming community?